When can you ignore a pitchers poor past performance vs a team?

[pats3peat]

Do you feel there is a stigma attached to certain pitchers that make them worse vs some teams?
I always look at pitcher vs batter data. I take that into consideration instead of seeing how the pitcher has done vs. the team in the past. How much stock do you put into pitcher vs batter info?

Obviously there are times when a pitcher will do good vs a team they usually do bad against: example - Joe Saunders the other day owning Livan & The Nationals when saunders is terrible against righty batters and most of the national batters

[pats3peat]

bang

[HoulihansTX]

Its totally arbitrary. There are a million different ways to dismiss, or invent an answer for your question.

Gun to my head, I would say its more the ballpark, than the actual team they are facing.

Like a home run pitcher would find more success pitching in West coast stadiums, than places like Yankee/Fenway/Wrigley etc.

For the most part, there is too much roster/managerial turnover to say that a pitcher has struggles/finds success against a player b/c of the color of their uniform.

[pats3peat]

Not a bad point

[Vin_vermillion]

Honestly I don't think it matters at al for about 80% of pitchers what they have done in the past. Some great pitchers are having sub par years - so say carpenter has dominted the pirates in the past - this season he has not been as good and the pirates have gotten better than past seasons. You have other pitchers who are haven their best seasons and now may pitch better than a team that has dominated them such as lannan a few nights back. It on over rated stat if you ask me. I would rather look at how pitchers are trending currently than past data. Although it can help if you take it into account with current trends as well

[Johnny Applepeat]

pitching matters a lot

[LGHT]

I look at pitcher vs opposing teams line and add that into consideration quit a bit, but I also look at ballpark and type of pitcher as well. I mean if you decent pitcher that happens to be a fly ball guy who has a great era against a certain group of hitters, but he is now in Colorado in a day game that all goes out the window.
Take Danks for example 1-8 on the year. A lot of guys where backing SEA since Danks was 0-8 on the year and had a horrible ERA, but looking into it a little further showed he was 4-0 in his last 4 starts against SEA and had an ERA of 1.13 against their starting lineup. It wasn't a surprise that he was lights out and didn't give up an earned run in the game.

[Johnny Applepeat]

past performance like vermillilon said ithink is overrated but useful sometimes

[AL1322]

i check pitcher vs the guys they are going to face/how they have fared in that stadium and what kind of outings they have had recently..and just go off that